1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a safety warning system for motor vehicles, and more particularly, to a system and method that alert a driver when a child or an inanimate object of interest is left in the vehicle, generally but not always following movement of the vehicle from one point to another. The system detects and monitors access and egress for an assigned location within the motor vehicle. The system also optionally alerts a driver to remove a person or article from a motor vehicle when the vehicle engine is turned off.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years the number of child deaths resulting from drivers having mistakenly or accidentally left their children inside closed motor vehicles has escalated to the point of causing widespread concern. Closed vehicles can quickly reach unsurvivable temperatures for infants or small children, either during summer in warmer climates or during winter in colder climates.
Various alarm and alert warning systems for children left in motor vehicles are described generally, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,793,291; 6,922,147; 6,930,614; 7,218,211; 7,218,218; 7,348,880; 7,378,979; 7,663,493; U.S. 2003/0122662; and U.S. 2005/0099285. However, many such prior devices rely upon complex and expensive weight or pressure sensors that require modifications to motor vehicle seats and that attempt to differentiate between or perform differently for adult versus child passengers or inanimate objects such as children's car seats. Such conventional systems have typically been designed to function passively and without driver input, and do not allow a driver to affirmatively designate the location of a child or otherwise incapacitated passenger, or to designate the location of an object that should desirably be removed from the vehicle upon reaching a destination. Other conventional systems do not have the capability to assign monitored positions that may include, for example, vehicular storage locations such as trunks, glove boxes or consoles, where inanimate objects can be stored that a driver may want to be reminded to remove from a vehicle upon exiting the vehicle.